Related Articles

The incident put Sandro Cortese into the race lead and, with Salom out and Maverick Vinales fourth, suddenly on target to win the world title!

But he couldn't escape, prompting Kent and Alessandro Tonucci to both outbraked Cortese at the end of the back straight, with just a few corners to go.

Pole sitter Kent got by cleanly, but Tonucci and Cortese tangled on the exit when the German tried to cut back under the Italian.

Cortese fell, but hung onto his sliding KTM - despite being clipped by Tonucci again - and finished sixth, while Kent won from Vinales and debut podium finisher Tonucci.

There were ugly scenes on the slowdown lap when a furious Cortese inexplicably took his anger out on team-mate Kent - shaking his fist and literally jumping up and down on his bike in rage.

Cortese then had a further tantrum in the Ajo pitbox, before discipline was finally restored by the factory KTM team and Cortese made to give a thumbs-up gesture towards Kent.

Cortese now holds a 56 point lead over Vinales and can wrap up the title if he leaves next weekend's Malaysian round with an advantage of at least 51 points.

UPDATE: MotoGP world champion Casey Stoner has posted the following message on his official Twitter page (@Official_CS27):

"Hearing some things around the paddock that only a few of @DannyKent52 team were at the podium. They should be ashamed of themselves if they think Danny had anything to do with Sandro's crash. Disappointed to hear that kind of team behaviour. Well done again Danny!"